Synopsis

SpongeBob visits Sandy's treedome, and then sees that Sandy had built a rocket ship. Sandy explains to him that she is going to the moon, and SpongeBob begs her to take him with her. Although she insists that he cannot come and that this trip is for science and not for fun, SpongeBob's begging ultimately convinces her to let him come with her.

That night, Patrick comes to SpongeBob's house and gives him some "Alien Repellent," which they sneak into Sandy's treedome to spray on the windows. Even though they agree to only spray the windows, Patrick inadvertently enters the rocket, and SpongeBob follows. After playing with the ship's various features, SpongeBob accidentally starts up the rocket, which makes it loop over the moon a few times and then comes back to Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob and Patrick convinced that they're now on the Moon, think that the aliens are projecting their memories onto the environment to trick them.

They begin catching everyone with Sandy's net guns (intended for harvesting moon rocks), believing the citizens of Bikini Bottom are aliens. Eventually, they capture everyone in Bikini Bottom. When Sandy arrives and tries to chew them out for ruining her experiment, SpongeBob and Patrick shoot their net guns at her, capturing her too. Sandy attempts to explain the

SpongeBob and Patrick capture Sandy, a.k.a. "Ms. AlienPants."

truth to them, but they slam the door in her face. Suddenly, SpongeBob is convinced that Patrick is an alien. Patrick attempts to shoot him before he has a chance to capture him but ends up shooting and capturing himself (he had his net gun pointed the wrong way). SpongeBob starts the rocket again to return home, and when it reaches the moon, the rocket crashes on top of it, having run out of gas. Noticing things are different, SpongeBob looks out the window to see the Earth where he realizes his mistake. All the captured fish, who are being stored in the cargo hold of the ship, say: "SpongeBob, we aliens would like a word with you." as the episode ends.

Production

SpongeBob and Patrick in their space suits were designed by Todd White.[1]

Art

Deleted scene

There was a deleted scene where Plankton steals a Krabby Patty, but SpongeBob and Patrick capture him. Then Pearl was seen shopping in the mall before SpongeBob captures her. These scenes can be seen in a book based on this episode.[2]

Release

Reception

As of December 28, 2018, The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) gives this episode a rating of 8.4/10 based on 540 ratings by users.[3] TV.com users give this episode a rating of 8.0/10 based on 237 votes.[4]

"Sandy's Rocket" was ranked #68 during the Best Day Ever event on November 9–10, 2006.

When SpongeBob looks out at the window towards the moon, the view of Earth from the Moon looks almost exactly like the famed Apollo 8 photograph.

During a The Rugrats Movie promotion in 1999, a set of scratch-and-sniff stickers were released at specified fast-food restaurants to be used with certain Nicktoons. One of them was used when Patrick squirts toothpaste in SpongeBob's peanut butter. Another one of them was used when SpongeBob pulls out a hot water bottle from Squidward.[5] Also, the symbol that signaled one to "sniff" at the bottom right part of the screen was accidentally filmed along with the episode, and not edited out until late 2002, almost three years after the scratch-and-sniff packs were put out of circulation.

A chapter book based on this episode features extended material: In the extended ending, SpongeBob releases Patrick and Sandy from the bags, and Sandy shoots SpongeBob as punishment before flying the rocket back to Bikini Bottom. The book also shows Plankton getting captured while stealing the Krabby Patty formula, and SpongeBob and Patrick capture Pearl, which according to the book, acquired more than one net to do so. These scenes are not in the episode version.

This episode reveals that Mr. Krabs has a pet worm.

This is the first episode where Mr. Krabs is seen only outside of the Krusty Krab during an episode.

This marks the first episode where Mr. Krabs appears without the Krusty Krab appearing.

When Patrick plays on the video game, he makes a face that is now an internet meme.

This is the first episode that shows that Sandy is interested in science. This would become a more common part of her personality in the post-movie episodes.

Cultural references

The sounds heard when Patrick is playing a video game are like the sound effects from the Game Boy version of Tetris.

A book that said 2001 written on its cover which is a reference to the 2001: A Space Odyssey.

When SpongeBob and Patrick first become weightless in the rocket, a book floats by with "2001" written on its cover. This is a reference to the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.

SpongeBob's belief that the "aliens" are projecting his and Patrick's memories of Bikini Bottom onto the lunar surface to put them into a false sense of security seems to be inspired from "The Third Expedition," from The Martian Chronicles. It could also be inspired from the ending of the film Contact.

While in space, SpongeBob and Patrick goof around and play with various objects. One of which involves Patrick squirting toothpaste in a floating splat of Peanut Butter, and SpongeBob humorously exclaims "Hey, you got your toothpaste in my peanut butter!" This is a reference to the famous "collision" commercials for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

SpongeBob makes reference to "cowlicks" as evidence of aliens. This is most likely an homage to The Adventures of Pete & Pete, a very early Nickelodeon live-action show.

The music heard when SpongeBob launches into space the second time is a parody of the Star Wars theme music.

The scene when SpongeBob and Patrick "analyze" Squidward thinking he's an alien has some references to the 1979 film Alien, most notably when Squidward's tentacle attaches to Patrick's helmet like the series "Facehuggers' in the famous scene from the film, and the way SpongeBob's hands appear under the light in Squidward's water bottle are similar to the way the eggs in Alien appeared.

The famous CBS game show ding most famously used in The Price Is Right and Match Game is heard when SpongeBob and Patrick throw Gary into the rocket.

Errors

When the rocket begins to lift off and smoke is created from the launch, Sandy smells it in her bedroom. This is physically impossible as the rocket was outside of the treedome and the dome is airtight with Sandy inside.

Before throwing Sandy in the rocket to bring to the moon, Patrick laughs, but his mouth does not move in sync with the laugh.

When SpongeBob asks Sandy what she is going to do on the moon, SpongeBob says: "Are we gonna hunt aliens on the moon?" However, the closed-captions said, "Will we hunt aliens on the moon?"

When the rocket first circles the moon, the rocket is almost as big as the moon, but at the end of the episode when SpongeBob looks out the window, the moon is much bigger.

SpongeBob and Patrick experience gravity turning on and off when leaving the water, but gravity wouldn't change until they left Earth's atmosphere.

When SpongeBob and Patrick are floating in the rocket and Patrick is trying to get right side up, SpongeBob laughs completely out of tune.

The rocket leaves a fire trail behind it, but when it crash lands, it uses a propeller.

When SpongeBob and Patrick are trying to stuff everyone into the ship, it appears to be full. However, they have enough room to throw Sandy in later.

At the beginning, there is a ladder to get onto the platform. Then, in the next scene with the platform, the ladder is gone.

In one scene where Sandy is showing SpongeBob how the net gun works, she blows on the bubbles coming out of the gun, despite having her helmet on.

When the fish holding the parasol is netted, her eyes appear on its canopy. Her eyes should appear underneath the canopy, not on it.

SpongeBob's alarm clock is on the left side on the bed, unlike in most other episodes.

When SpongeBob says "a present," his speech is cut off so it sounds like "a prese-."

When Sandy jetpacks up to the Moon and lands, she takes up almost the whole top surface of the moon, which is a size error.

Before Squidward wakes up, SpongeBob is holding on to three of his tentacles; the fourth one is still in bed. However, in the next close-up of Squidward, SpongeBob is holding on to all four of them.

Patrick holds on to Squidward's right tentacle before he wakes up, but after he wakes up, he's holding his left tentacle.

Running gags

SpongeBob and Patrick mistakening the citizens of Bikini Bottom as aliens.